What's New

Fifty-seven out of 129 countries around the world are faced with very serious levels of both undernutrition and adult overweight and obesity, according to the 2016 Global Nutrition Report . Africa remains one of the regions most plagued by these varied threats of malnutrition, and the continent will need to make strong commitments to reach the goal set forth by the SDGs of ending malnutrition in all its forms by 2030.

As the lean season nears an end in Southern Africa , maize supplies and prices remain mixed across the region, according to the latest FEWS Net alert. In Zambia and Tanzania, maize supplies have improved slightly due to ongoing harvests; in contrast, southern Mozambique and Zimbabwe are seeing below average maize supplies due to poor 2015-2016 production levels. Maize prices are following a similar trend, with price decreases in Zambia, northern and central Mozambique, and northern Malawi and either stable or abnormally increasing prices in southern Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Focusing on agricultural growth, particularly that of smallholder farmers, can help countries in Africa south of the Sahara achieve broader economic and development objectives, including poverty reduction, says a new open-access book prepared by the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) and published by Oxford Press.

FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS) has released several new country briefs for Africa south of the Sahara. This series of briefs provides an overview of the food security situation in monitored countries, focusing on the current agricultural season, harvests prospects for staple food crops and livestock, estimates and forecasts of cereal production, and food price and food policy trends.

In 1961, annual milled rice production in Africa south of the Sahara was 2.8 million tons; this number reached an estimated 16.6 million tons in 2011. [1] Despite this increase, however, demand for rice in the region has outpaced local production, leading SSA to import more rice; according to a journal article in Agriculture and Food Security , the share of imports in SSA’s overall rice consumption reached 43 percent in 2009. This trend has caused policymakers and experts throughout the region to attempt to strengthen the domestic rice sector.